Two-year-old survived on Easter eggs for five days after mother died

A two-year-old girl in New South Wales was home alone for up to five days and may have survived on chocolate Easter eggs after her mother died.

Photo: Alamy

By Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney

11:14AM BST 16 Apr 2012

The girl was discovered, dehydrated but with healthy blood sugar levels, at a house in Wagga Wagga in south-west NSW after a neighbours noticed that the washing had not been removed from the clothes line.

"She was quite lethargic and pale," said a local ambulance inspector, Eamonn Purcell. "She wasn't saying much, she wasn't displaying much emotion. It was not long after Easter so she probably had some chocolate eggs that she was eating." Mr Purcell said it was unknown precisely how long the girl was forced to fend for herself, but neighbours believed her 36-year-old mother, Elizabeth Keevers, died up to five days before she was found.

"We heard the girl crying in the house and we just thought it was her crying, you know," said one neighbour.

A local church pastor, Ross Brinkman, entered the house on Friday afternoon and found the dead mother and the girl after a neighbour – a nun – became concerned.

"As you can imagine she was without food and water for a long time," said Mr Brinkman.